Hierarchical Model for Web Browser Navigation

• US 20110066982A1
• Filed: 09/15/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Gill, Bikram Singh, Paulsami, Prabakar
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/835
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention enable navigation in a web browser to be supported by a session browse history. In embodiments, a session browse history may be an n-ary tree data structure. Embodiments of the present invention integrated into a browser enable a user to access a session browse history tree via browser UI displays such as a navigation bar, a main tool bar, or a combination thereof. In embodiments, a session browse history tree may be exported to persistent storage, and may be imported into and integrated with an active session browse history tree. In embodiments, a stored session browse history tree may be updated in response to handling a caught browser event such as a “browser refresh” event, and in response to processing a user-initiated “go to” request from the browser UI. In embodiments, a currently stored session browse history tree may be returned in response to a request received from the browser UI.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented browser user interface (UI) comprising a navigation display that provides access to browse history, the browser UI comprising:

a session forward icon that, responsive to a user selecting the session forward icon, causes the navigation display to display a first portion of a tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a Universal Resource Identifier (URI), the first portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user after a currently visited link node; and

a session backward icon that, responsive to the user selecting the session backward icon, causes the navigation display to display a second portion of the tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a URI, the second portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user before the currently visited link node.

2. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 1 wherein selection of a link node causes the browser to navigate to the URI associated with the link node.

3. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 2 wherein a first link node in the tree-based session browse history has a set of one or more child link nodes, and the navigation display comprises the first link node and an icon representing the presence of the set of child link nodes that, responsive to the user selecting the icon, updates the navigation display to comprise the first link node and at least some of the set of child link nodes.

4. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 3 wherein the browser UI further comprises a session browsing history icon that, responsive to the user selecting the session browsing history icon, causes the navigation display to provide access to a complete tree-based session browse history.

5. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 4 wherein access to the complete tree-based session browse history is provided by displaying a portion of the complete tree-based session browse history and an indicator that provides access to an undisplayed portion of the complete tree-based session browse history, which undisplayed portion is displayed in response to the user selecting the indicator.

6. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 5 wherein the navigation display adjusts around a link node that is selected by the user.

7. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 4 wherein the browser UI further comprises:

a “

save”

icon that, in response to the user selecting the “

save”

icon, causes the tree-based session browse history to be saved; and

an “

open”

icon that, in response to the user selecting the “

open”

icon, allows the user to select a previously saved browser session history, and causes the selected session browse history to be imported and added to the tree-based session browse history.

8. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 7 wherein the navigation display is updated to display at least a portion of the saved tree-based session browse history that was imported.

9. The computer-implemented browser UI of claim 1 wherein the browser UI further comprises:

a “

back”

session navigation icon, that causes the browser to perform sequential navigation to a link node visited just prior to the currently visited link node in response to the user selecting the “

back”

session navigation icon, the link node being identified based on a current value of a path property of the tree-based session browse history; and

a “

forward”

session navigation icon, that causes the browser to perform sequential navigation to a link node visited just after the currently visited link node in response to the user selecting the “

forward”

session navigation icon, the link node being identified based on a current value of a path property of the tree-based session browse history.

10. A computer processing system for providing a navigation display within a browser UI, the system comprising:

a user interface (UI) elements processor, that;

dispatches a task processing request associated with input data to a request handler in response to receiving the input data from the browser UI, and

provides the navigation display within the browser UI in response to receiving a task processing result from a request handler, the navigation display comprising;

a session forward icon that, responsive to a user selecting the session forward icon, causes the navigation display to display a first portion of a tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a Universal Resource Identifier (URI), the first portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user after a currently visited link node; and

a session backward icon that, responsive to the user selecting the session backward icon, causes the navigation display to display a second portion of the tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a URI, the second portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user before the currently visited link node;

the request handler, that, in response to receiving the processing task request associated with the input data, generates a processing task result by executing a task comprising accessing the tree-based browse history; and

a browse history manager, that accesses a stored representation of the tree-based browse history in response to receiving a browse history access request from the request handler.

11. The computer processing system of claim 10 wherein the processing task request associated with the input data is updating the tree-based session browse history, and executing the task comprises:

retrieving a stored representation of the tree-based session browse history from data storage;

responsive to the input data comprising a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) that is not associated with a link node within the retrieved tree-based session browse history, adding a first link node associated with the URI to the tree-based session browse history by;

creating the first link node associated with the URI;

identifying a second link node within the tree-based session browse history that is currently being visited by the browser; and

adding the first link node to a set of child link nodes associated with the second link node;

updating a set of properties associated with the tree-based session browse history, the set of properties comprising “

current node” and

“

current path”

; and

storing a representation of the updated tree-based history in data storage.

12. The computer processing system of claim 11 further comprising an on-event listener that dispatches a task processing request associated with a browser-generated event to the request handler in response to receiving the event.

13. A computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to execute a computer-implemented method for providing a navigation display that provides access to browse history, the method comprising:

providing a session forward icon that, responsive to a user selecting the session forward icon, causes the navigation display to display a first portion of a tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a Universal Resource Identifier (URI), the first portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user after a currently visited link node; and

providing a session backward icon that, responsive to the user selecting the session backward icon, causes the navigation display to display a second portion of the tree-based session browse history comprising link nodes, wherein each link node is associated with a URI, the second portion of the tree-based session browse history corresponding to a set of link nodes that have been visited by the user before the currently visited link node.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein selection of a link node causes the browser to navigate to the URI associated with the link node.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein a first link node in the tree-based session browse history has a set of one or more child link nodes, and the navigation display comprises the first link node and an icon representing the presence of the set of child link nodes that, responsive to the user selecting the icon, updates the navigation display to comprise the first link node and at least some of the set of child link nodes.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising providing a session browsing history icon that, responsive to the user selecting the session browsing history icon, causes the navigation display to provide access to a complete tree-based session browse history.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein access to the tree-based session browse history is provided by displaying a portion of the complete tree-based session browse history and an indicator that provides access to an undisplayed portion of the complete tree-based session browse history, which undisplayed portion is displayed in response to the user selecting the indicator.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the navigation display adjusts around a link node that is selected by the user.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the method further comprises:

providing a “

save”

icon that, in response to the user selecting the “

save”

icon, causes the tree-based session browse history to be saved; and

providing an “

open”

icon that, in response to the user selecting the “

open”

icon, allows the user to select a previously saved browser session history, and causes the selected session browse history to be imported and added to the tree-based session browse history.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the method further comprises:

providing a “

back”

session navigation icon, that causes the browser to perform sequential navigation to a link node visited just prior to the currently visited link node in response to the user selecting the “

back”

session navigation icon, the link node being identified based on a current value of a path property of the tree-based session browse history; and

providing a “

forward”

session navigation icon, that causes the browser to perform sequential navigation to a link node visited just after the currently visited link node in response to the user selecting the “

forward”

session navigation icon, the link node being identified based on a current value of a path property of the tree-based session browse history.